Victims of Corporate Espionage
by lostsword
Summary: Zim has long since gotten over his termination from Irken Technology Incorporated. Now, when his only friends, Gaz and Dib Membrane, are in danger because of a plan set in motion by Redford 'Red' Tall to crush Membrane Labs, Zim must pick up his guns, dust off his bombs and blow a lot of expensive equipment up. WARNING: CHARACTER DEATH, MENTIONING OF DRUGS, EXCESSIVE VIOLENCE.
1. Chapter I: Meeting

_Victims of Corporate Espionage_

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN INVADER ZIM**

**A/N: Just throwing this out here to see what kind of reaction I'll get. Review and let me know what you think, i'm basing my updates on the review count right now.**

Chapter I: Meeting

For the past three centuries, Irken Technologies Incorporated had dominated the Research and Development field. They were monsters, giants, they dwarfed even the largest rival company in the technological spectrum. The current owners Redford and Paul Tall were filthy rich off their ancestors company, which had it's fingers dug in contracts across every continent on the face of the Earth. And the only thing that could possibly stop them from continuing their life of wealth and luxury was a man by the name of Professor Membrane. He, and his company Membrane Labs, were rapidly putting out new and innovative technology on the market, some of the items they were selling were supposedly even better then Irken grade technology. Take Super Toast for example, it was already beating their micro food supply units by leaps and bounds financially.

The obvious answer to this problem was to have Membrane taken care of, however the problem was that he was almost allays in his lab, and his lab was located deep inside Membrane Labs' main compound, which had top notch security. The only way to get rid of him now would be to strike at him from a different angle. That angle just happened to be the most convenient way to deal with dangerous or allusive targets, children. Membrane had two of brats, both already on their way through adulthood.

The eldest one, a son, was twenty two, a prodigy in the tech field like his father and the apparent heir to the family throne. He had a few 'unusual' beliefs about him, like aliens and bigfoot and other crazy ideas of the supernatural, but other than that, he was a major threat to the Tall's operations down the road.

The younger child was a girl, who had barely any records in the Tall's database at all. She was nineteen, but even more allusive than her father, being mostly consumed with fast food, most notably a local pizza, and video games. There wasn't any threat there, but she would make the perfect hostage. A damsel in distress indeed.

Normal random hired gun wouldn't be able to deal with such well defended children like Membranes, who most likely had the best tech out there to stop any attempts on their lives. And Red, as some of the upper staff referred to him as, wasn't willing to commit his own personnel, being wary of information leaking out to Membrane and his cohorts about who sent the agent. And any professional mercenary they sent after the children were either too far away to do it during the window open to them, or they wanted to take time to stake the area out, which also would take too much time.

That was why Zim was the perfect option. He had been living in the area for the past ten or so years, ever since they had fired him and kicked him out of his old home. He was the best choice, because he knew the area, could be trusted to get the job done, given the right persuasive. And he was one of their best assassins, or rather, one of their best ex assassins.

"So we're decided," Red said at last as he and Paul sat in large plush chairs inside their massive penthouse before a large glass window that overlooked the entire city while sipping wine from intricate glass goblets. Paul nodded his agreement as he sipped his wine once more. In the distance, lightning flashed as the rain picked up even more. It seemed like a bad omen to the two of them, but both stubbornly ignored it.

"Let's just hope he doesn't botch this one up too..."

* * *

"I told you to park near the theater!" Gazlene Membrane shouted loudly as she ran through the ever increasing rain. Beside her, Zimmerman Zakhva, who was busy trying to shield the two of them from the downpour with his jacket, could only agree with her.

"I agree! Why did you have to park two blocks away!" Zim, as Gaz and Dib often called him instead of his longer full name, said.

"Shut up!" Dib Membrane snapped as he ran to keep up with the other two young adults. How a pair of video game addicts could outpace a man that spent his free time running after the world's most horrifying creatures, or at least chasing after sightings of the world's most horrifying creatures, would forever stump Dib. Yet the evidence was before him as Zim and Gaz ran towards his sleek car, somehow defying the rainy onslaught that was hammering every other surface in the city.

"Open the car Dib!" Gaz snapped and Dib hit a button on his key chain, which allowed the doors, all four of them, to lift upwards like wings rather than swinging to the side like most cars did. The trio quickly piled in the car, though Gaz gave up the passenger seat to ride in the back with Zim, a fact that Dib detested greatly despite the, and Dib used this term _very_ lightly, tiny friendship that the two men shared, which had only formed because of Gaz in the first place.

"Never. Again," Gaz said as she wiped at her soaking wet purple hair, which was dropping all over her neck and shoulders, as well as sticking to her face and covering her eyes slightly. "Got. That. Dib?" She asked, still speaking in a clipped tone. Dib merely nodded, knowing from previous personal experience that talking to Gaz right now was a bad idea. Instead, he started up the car and headed down the road, his destination Zim's house. The sooner he could get rid of the Russian speaking shark, the better.

"Come now, "Zim said softly. "I rather enjoyed watching you get drenched, it makes you look so _alluring_..." Zim said, adding emphasis on the last word, knowing it would bother Dib incredibly. It did.

"Woah!" Dib screamed as he jerked away form the light post that he had very nearly hit. He had either fainted or gone into some sort of mind lock up. Whatever the case, he had veered off the road and almost killed the three of them because of one simple blunder. Cursing Zim in what the older man dubbed 'Nerd Speak,' Dib blocked the couple out and focused on making sure the car made it to Zim's house without any more 'accidents.'

"Moron," Gaz said, though there was no anger behind her words as she hit Zim with her elbow, which also had no real force behind it. To a normal person, they would have still been in shock over the near death experience the three of them had just had. Instead, Gaz found it kind of touching that Zim was willing to risk their lives to insult her brother and compliment her, probably in that order. Needless to say, she was feeling rather affectionate about it. "Won't you ever learn?" She asked as she slid halfway onto Zim's lap, her seat belt had never been on so it didn't hinder this task in the slightest.

"Maybe," Zim admitted as he leaned down so their foreheads were touching softly while their lips stayed only a few inches apart. "Would you be my teacher?" He asked as Gaz smirked.

"What do you want to learn?" Gaz asked, her hands now on his shoulders.

"I think it would be best if I just showed you," Zim said and leaned down to capture her mouth with his own. Gaz eagerly gave in and the two continued their make out session all the way to Zim's house, a good thirteen or so blocks away.

Dib, by the time they had stopped, was a wreck. He had fought off the sounds from the back of the car with all his will and now his eyes were blood shot, his ears were stuffed with tissue paper and his nails were demolished ruins. His shirt was badly wrinkled and the steering wheel would have permanent indentions from his fingers as he tried to tune out his sister making out in the back of the car. He had smashed the rear view mirror somewhere between block six and seven, but he really didn't want to go back into his memories to figure out exact specifics.

"Gaz!" Dib snapped over his shoulder, fighting the urge to go over and slug Zim for basically pawing his sister like some sort of expensive toy. He wouldn't even make it two steps before Gaz, or possibly even Zim, got him and beat him into some sort of nightmarish world for committing the sin of hurting Zim, whom Gaz regarded as her personal property when it came to Dib. "GAZ!" Dib shouted, but to no avail, his sister and her boyfriend were still relentless in their actions.

"GAAAZZ!" Dib screamed as he honked the horn at the same time. The duo broke apart, but not by much, just enough so that their lips didn't magnetically reattach again. "We're here, it's time for Zim," Oh how he hated that man so much right now, "To go home," And how he loved to get to say that. He almost added 'without you,' but thought better of it.

Zim smirked at Dib like a victor smirked at the loser when he claimed the big golden trophy at the finish line. He leaned over to Gaz's ear and said something quickly with words Dib didn't even begin to understand, which he assumed was Russian, before kissing her once more, this time long and drawn out with no finger play whatsoever. He then broke away and, with a bow of the head to Dib, exited the car.

Dib all but left skid marks in the drive way as he flew back down the road towards his own home, his nice, sweet, safe, free-of-Zim home.

"What do you even see in him anyways?" Dib asked as Gaz calmly moved up the passenger seat, climbing over the central console between the driver and passenger side of the car. Never mind the fact that if he crashed she would go through the windshield while in the process of moving up to the front of the car, Gaz had the audacity to keep her seat belt off still, which Dib figured was both morally and legally wrong, though the second one would get her in trouble sooner than the former.

"He's nice," Gaz said, as if that was the entire reason, and the only reason, she needed to date Zim. Of course, to Gaz, that was all she needed. Zim was the only one who cared about her, the only one who would ever give two whoops in Hell if she got hurt. Sure Dib was there, but he was always pestering her, always bugging her, trying to get her to be more like him and their father and not let her be herself. Zim wasn't just nice, he was the _only_ one who was nice. Everyone else either mocked her, feared her, or was dead, like her mother. Who knew if her father even cared, what mattered to her was that Zim cared.

"But he's _twenty five_," Dib complained. A six year difference between his sister and her suitor wasn't something he was happy about. A _year_ difference would have made him mad, but a _six_ year difference? And that was just the tip of the iceberg too. Zim was rude, crude, and socially unacceptable. He had shown up to Gaz's eighteenth birthday beyond drunk and offering her dope as a birthday present for crying out loud! Of course, Gaz, in her own odd way, had found all of these things either incredibly endearing or funny. Which ever one, she wasn't repulsed by it at all. It made Dib feel sick.

"Dad said Mom was older than him when they married, by _ten_ years," Gaz pointed out. "And who cares? You haven't even had a girlfriend, much less possess the ability to get one," She added, digging the knife all that much deeper in the wound. "You have no room to talk here," She said.

"I still think-" Dib started to say, only for Gaz to grab his wrist and yank on it sharply. The bone popped painfully out of place as the car veered towards the large stone fence that bordered their lawn, however Gaz pushed forward with even more force, causing the bone to pop back in place and the car to slam to a stop next to the wall rather than inside it.

"That's the problem Dib," Gaz said as she opened her car door. "You think too much," She said as her parting shot before slamming the door shut so hard that a slight crack appeared in the passenger window.

Dib, for his part, was just starting to register the fear and pain that he should have felt ten seconds ago. With a sigh, he exited the car with wobbly legs, deciding to deal with the car's parking job tomorrow. Right now he needed three things, a change of pants, a shower and his bed. In exactly that order.

* * *

"Good evening Zim," Red said as Zim shut his door. The ex assassin drew a pistol faster than Red had thought possible and had said pistol jammed against the tycoon's jaw without so much as one indication that he had left the murder industry ten years prior to the present day. "Still good with that gun I see," He said calmly, despite the fact that a very real and fully loaded .357 was jammed into his jaw.

"You have a lot of balls, coming here," Zim snarled, rage covering his features. "You _threw_ me out of your business and told me never to contact you again, yet your standing here like everything's right as rain!" He snapped.

"We need you to do a job Zim," Paul said from his spot nearby, his hands twitching slightly due to his fear.

Zim effortlessly drew a second pistol with his left hand and aimed it over his right arm, pointing the Colt 1911 directly at Paul's head. "Purple? I would have figured Red would have killed you off by now," Zim said coldly as he looked from one face to the other, as if seeing how kind the years had been on their age.

"_Paul_," Red said, detesting the name that all of the old assassins had given Paul, supposedly out of either mockery or affection. "Is still useful, so I have kept him around, "He said. "You, however, have just become useful again, we need you for a hit."

"What?" Zim asked, looking surprised for the first time since the meeting had gone down. "You want me for a hit?" He asked. "Why?"

"Because you have valuable personal knowledge of the area," Red said. "And we have no agents nearby that can do this job..."

Zim froze and eyed Red critically. "You aren't suggesting what I think you are, are you?" He demanded.

Red eyed him calmly. "We want you to kill or capture the Membrane children. We need at least one alive as a hostage. In fact, killing one and holding the other one might work even better," Red said, thinking of ways to use the girl to get at Membrane, after all, killing his boy would help more than killing the girl. "You will naturally get paid heavily for this task, perhaps even a restoration to your previous title?"

Zim's answer was the cocking of both of his pistols. "If it were anyone else, I'd shoot you right now," He snarled, his anger returning rapidly. "But because I can't make Purp an only child, I'll give you to the count of ten to get out of this house and to never bother me or the Membranes again," Zim said coldly.

Red looked surprised. "W-what?" He asked, having thought Zim would jump at the chance to get his job back. Zim lowered the .357 and fired two shots off easily, the bullets hit both of Red's knee caps and caused the older man to collapse to the ground.

"If you don't drag your brother out of here in the next five seconds, I'll have two less bullets than I do right now," Zim said with malice to Paul while Red lay on the floor howling in pain, his gun still trained on both of the Tall brothers. The younger brother, who was actually impressing Zim by not whimpering in fear at that very moment, seemed to freeze as he wondered if Zim was bluffing. He wasn't.

"Three," Zim said as he cocked the Colt's firing bolt back. Paul's eyes grew huge and he quickly grabbed his brothers arms and began to pull him towards the door. "Two," Paul threw the door wide open and began to drag him through the doorway. "One," The two men had barely cleared the door before Zim fired off two rounds into the sidewalk outside, barely missing Red's expensive leather shoes.

Sighing, Zim holstered his guns and whistled softly. Immediately a small odd green dog, which closely resembled a terrier, came striding up to him. Zim bent down and ruffled it's fur affectionately. "Gir, we have work to do," He said as he eyed the wide open door and the blood stains on the sidewalk.

**Let me know what you think, reviews are appreciated and welcomed greatly!**


	2. Chapter II: Run

_Victims of Corporate Espionage_

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN INVADER ZIM**

Chapter II: Run

Gaz, by definition, wasn't exactly the poster child for normality. Still, waking up at three in the morning wasn't really something she wanted to do. Much less when she had gotten home at midnight after watching an incredibly loud and long movie, though to be fair Zim had barely let her see any of the movie, not that she had really been complaining at the time.

"Gaz, love-pig, you need to get up," Zim said, using the nickname he had given her. True it was a bit odd to call her a pig, but Zim had resolved that if two incredibly weird people formed a relationship, their combined weirdness didn't necessarily cancel out said weirdness. In most cases, it seemed, it actually amplified that very weirdness to previously untouched levels of weirdness. Weird huh?

"Five...more...minutes..." Gaz mumbled. She was not a morning person, screw Zim, she was not getting up this early.

Zim sighed and drew his .357 and placed the sleek metal barrel, not the business end, but the side of the barrel, against her cheek. Gaz immediately registered the weapon for what it was and jumped off the bed faster than most would expect for her slightly short size. She tackled Zim to the ground and yanked the gun out of his hands before placing it against his right temple. Only then did she start to wake up.

"Glad to see I taught you a few things," Zim remarked as Gaz blinked a few times, then stared at him for a few seconds before eying the gun in her hands.

"Why are you in my bedroom?" Gaz asked. "I thought we agreed that if there was any sleepovers, it was at your house," Gaz said. Zim chuckled at the comment, remembering in vivid detail both the occasion and the talk they had about _why_ that particular arrangement had to be...well arranged. Mostly it was because Zim didn't want to find out what a photon generator and magnetic cannon could do to human flesh, but who was he to complain. Granted his flesh wasn't exactly the same as Dib's, but still.

"We _will_ be having a sleepover," Zim told her as he gingerly took the gun away and then slid it back into his shoulder holster. "But it won't be at either of our houses and it will include your brother. It will also be for more then one night," Zim said.

Gaz blinked a few times, mulled it over in her head and then figured that if Zim, of all people, had a reason to wake her up this early, risking death she might add, and felt it was worth it. She would go along with it and hope it wasn't some crazy fantasy he had dreamt up while mixing foreign plants again.

"Fine, lets go get Dib," She said. The two stood up and exited Gaz's room, only for Zim to stop the two of them in the hallway. "Wha-" She started to say, only for Zim to cut her off as he kissed her deeply.

Pulling back, he smirked down at her. "I won't get to do that very often in the coming days," He said grimly before taking her hand and heading over to her brother's room. Opening the door gently, he moved over to wake the boy up slowly, not wanting a repeat from Gaz's room, however before he could do this, Gaz picked up Dib by his mid section and threw him onto the floor.

"Agh! Big foot!" Dib squealed, yes squealed, as he thrashed around on the floor in his eyeball covered pajamas.

"Wow..." Zim said softly as he stared at Dib. Dib stared back at him, then bolted for his pocket knife laying on the desk near the door. Zim effortlessly grabbed Dib in a restraining hold and waited until Dib had realized Zim wasn't about to kill him and began to calm down. Once Dib had calmed down, and only then, did Zim release him form the hold.

"Jeez, first you throw me out of my bed, then you go all freaky karate kid on me," Dib muttered as he rubbed the areas that Zim had pressed down on when he had held Dib in place.

"Actually your sister was the one who threw you out of your bed," Zim said calmly while Gaz smirked at Dib.

"Oh...that...does make more sense actually," Dib said as he stood up. "Whats going Zim? Why are you here?" Dib asked as he woke up a bit more and realized Zim had to be here for some reason if he was waking them up this early. Gaz apparently had no idea either because she was giving Zim the same look Dib was, the look that demanded answers and not a moment later.

"Red wants to strike at your father," Zim said and Gaz's eyes narrowed as she hissed.

"That jerks still kicking? I told you to just let me off him years ago..." Gaz complained while Dib felt even more lost then ever.

"I know, but it is still, like before, against our best interests to kill him. The ramifications could very well mean the end of the world," Zim reminded her. Gaz merely shrugged.

"Eh, this place could use a make over anyways," She said.

"Okay, okay, back up!" Dib snapped, causing both Gaz and Zim to look at him. "What's going on! Who's this 'Red' guy and what do you mean by 'End of the World?'" Dib asked. "I mean, are we talking 'End of the World' end of the world or 'End of This City' end of the world?" Dib asked.

Zim sighed once more and turned to Gaz. "I told you in the beginning that I should have explained everything to him, or else this would happen and we have to explain everything now, when it inconveniences us," Zim said before turning back to Dib. "I will tell you in the car, but first you must pack, we need to leave. _Now_."

"Now?" Dib asked. "Why?"

"Did you not hear me fool? We need to leave now!" Zim snapped. "Pack your things and get ready to leave, we have to leave right now!" He said. "Gaz, go and get your things, and get _it_ too, I'll meet the two of you outside," Zim said before leaving the room.

"What's _it_?" Dib asked, however Gaz merely walked out of his room as well, not even bothering to indicate if she had heard him or not, she simply ignored him. Left with not other options, Dib began to pack.

/

"Ugh, this is going to take awhile," Zim muttered as the three of them, plus Zim's weird green dog, sat in Zim's car, which Dib noted was completely different from his normal car. Instead of the normal black and purple race car that had attracted so many females over the years, they now road a beat up silver minivan that had seen far better days.

"About nine years ago, a bit before I arrived at our high school, where we met of course...unfortunately," Zim began, muttering the last part under his breath, but it was still loud enough that Dib heard him. "Anyways, I was working for a pair of businessmen as a personal assassin and they sent me to-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Dib shouted. "You were an assassin?" He asked, both intrigued and worried that his sister was dating a trained killer.

"Yes, yes," Zim said, annoyed at having been interrupted, something he hated with a burning passion. "As I was _saying_, they hired me to go and kill a target, and it just so happened that I ended up _not_ killing said target, which obviously caused a great deal of anger and grief to my employers. They fired me, on the spot, and sent me packing. I left my home, my Computer, my work and my...well I didn't have friends, but you get the picture..." Zim said as he took a breath. "These men are the most ruthless, conniving, deadly men I can think of, and I played poker with the Russian Mafia's leader's son," Zim said. "To sum it all up, they are not to be discarded as harmless and not men to be crossed. Sadly, they want to beat your father out of the technological business, and since he spends so much time in his lab, they plan to get at him through you two..." Zim said while making a sharp turn. Luckily for them, there was no one out this early in the morning.

"So your telling us that not only are you an assassin, who's worked with the Russian Mafia, but that your former bosses are out to get us because of _you_! You scumbag you should have never dated my sister!" Dib shouted and tried to punch him, however he stopped dead when Zim drew his .357 effortlessly and aimed it directly at Dib, without looking, while he continued to drive down the road at a cruising sixty five miles an hour.

"No, _Dib_," Zim said, spitting Dib's name out like acid, something he only did when he was incredibly annoyed with the young inventor. "I am informing _you_, your sister already knows most of this information," Zim said.

"What?" Dib asked, looking at Gaz with hurt in his eyes.

"Don't be a baby Dib," Gaz said nonchalantly in way of reply. "So where are we going?" She asked, talking to Zim in a more friendly tone of voice. Though Gaz really didn't have a friendly tone of voice, it was more of a not mean tone of voice that she used when she was being friendly.

"One of my old safe houses that I maintained in the mountains nearby. We'll contact your father as soon as we get there," Zim assured her.

"Wait," Dib said suddenly. "Why don't we just go to my dad's lab? You said it was a lot more secure there, so it's obviously safer,"

Zim sighed, "No, that will never work, that's the first place they will have men watching. If we go there, we'll be captured for sure," Zim said.

"But taking us off into the remote mountains where there is no help what so ever is?" Dib demanded.

"Kinda have to agree with Dib on this one," Gaz agreed.

Zim growled. "IF you _believe_ you can do better than me when it comes to outsmarting second generation assassins hired by the most deadly men in the business world, then _please_, step up and take the wheel and call all the shots," Zim snapped.

"Jeesh, calm down Zim, I was just saying..." Dib said.

"Yeah, yeah, just say-" Zim started to say, only for a bright flash to go off in the distance before a whooshing sound could be heard. "Oh _Der'mo!_" Zim shouted in a mixture of shock and anger. Barely a moment later and a bright flash went off under the front left side of the car as an explosion rocked the rode. The rocket's detonation flipped the car twice before it crashed against the side of a building, smoking badly and burning lightly.

"OUT! NOW!" Zim snapped and yanked a battered gun from under the dash. He racked the bolt and then leaned out of the driver side window, which was now closer to the ground since the car was upside down. Zim jammed the trigger down and sent a burst of armor piercing rounds off into the early morning air. He fired two more bursts before turning around, his eyes lit with some sort of fire. "What are you doing! Get out!" He barked before firing another burst. He then kicked his door out, breaking it clean off the hinges, before climbing out of the car with Gir crawling out right behind him, his green fur spotless despite the car crash.

Not waiting on his two companions, Zim walked over to the trunk and popped it open, causing Dib and Gaz's bags to fall onto the ground. Reaching inside he hit a switch and something whirred before a clicking could be heard. Zim then pulled out a pair of duffel bags and a chunky backpack. Laying the three bags down on the ground, he looked at his two friends. "Take what you want from your personal bags, then lock them in the middle of the car," He said before opening the first duffel bag, which contained three large black vests. "Gaz," He said, handing her a vest that looked to have been fitted for her size exactly. Apparently it had, because Gaz began putting it on without any wasted effort or trouble.

However when Zim handed Dib his vest, he gave Zim a lost look. Sighing for what was most likely the hundredth time, Zim helped Dib into the vest before putting his own on. He then opened the second duffel bag and placed ammo clips, grenades and a few knives on his own vest before handing Gaz and Zim each a pistol and a pair of extra clips. "Don't shoot these unless absolutely necessary, keep them hidden," Zim said before tossing both empty duffels and their unwanted junk into the center of the car.

"Let's go," Zim said and, with Gir by his side, trotting along happily, he led the two down an alley and away from the car. As they ran into the alley, Dib noticed Zim pressing a small button on a control pad in his hand, seconds later and they heard a massive explosion as the car blew up. The detonation was so strong it leveled the building nearby, which was luckily an abandoned shop that had been scheduled for a controlled implosion a week later.

"From now on, you two do everything is say," Zim muttered as they continued on their way to the outskirts of the city. "Now things get interesting..."

/

"Sir?" A short man said as he entered Red's study.

"Yes?" Red asked as he drank from a wine from a glass.

"It appears that the targets have evaded us...one of our agents is dead and two more are wounded..." The short man said and only then did Red notice the fear in his voice. It wasn't because he was talking to Red, it was something else.

"What?" Red said, surprised. "What are you talking about?"

"It was...him sir...he killed one of our agents with a rifle of some sort, and then nearly blew two more up with their car..." The short man explained as he messed with his hands, trying to control the trembling.

Red realized Paul had been right, they were fools to mess with Zim. He was going to lock away his precious friends and then come and wage war with them, Red was sure of it. They had to act fast if this was going to end well at all. "Get me Agent T," Red said.

The short man's features paled. "S-sir?" He asked. "You want h-her?" He was shocked, she hadn't been used in nearly ten years. And the devastation from the last time they had used her had convinced Red to never use her talents again.

" .Her." Red growled and the puny man nodded before scurrying off to fetch Agent T. Red knew what hew was doing, or at least he told himself he did. The damage would be worth it, the price would be payable, so long as he was alive to pay it.

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	3. Chapter III: The Safe House

_Victims of Corporate Espionage_

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN INVADER ZIM**

Chapter III: The Safe House

"_This_ is your 'discreet safe house?'" Gaz said in shock as she stared at the luxurious interior of the safe house that Zim had brought them to. The walls, the doors, the roof and even the floor were all made of a highly polished wood, most likely oak. The floor was covered in thick, expensive rugs and the walls were adorned with lavish paintings and tapestries. Zim, of course, was quick to start the tour of the cottage.

Upstairs sat a large computer room with state of the art units attached to equally high tech monitors. One of the computers was currently turned on and displayed camera feeds from across the mountain and the house, with both it's interior and exterior being displayed. Also upstairs was a cozy study with bookshelves packed to the brim on every side save the doorway, along with three bedrooms across the hall from the computer room and the study.

Downstairs, Gaz found a large and well stocked kitchen, along with a decently sized game room, which contained everything from a pool table to a plasma screen televisions with the newest game consoles. Besides a few more bedrooms and the basement, the large house seemed to be rather small on the inside.

"I still can't believe we never came here," Gaz said as Zim led the trio back into the living room, where Gir was currently napping by the large fireplace set into the side of the wall.

"I never really gave any thought to this place," Zim admitted as he sat down in a large leather chair near Gir while Dib took a seat across from him. Gaz, unsurprisingly, chose to forgo the middle chair and instead sat on Zim's lap. "It isn't even mine really, it belonged to a target I took out a few years back," Zim said as he looked around the expensive home that had once been owned by a man he had killed. "I just happened to stumble across it when I was looking for him and decided it would make a good safe house encase I needed one in the future, and it turned out I was right."

"Couldn't your bosses, uh, trace us here?" Dib asked, glancing up the stairs to the door that led into the computer room. "I mean, all they would have to do is lock in on one of those computers' signal and we're done for," Dib added, thinking about how long it had taken them to hike up here, or rather how long it had taken him. Zim and Gaz had, to Dib's embarrassment, been slowed down by him more than he had been slowed down by them.

"Hah," Zim said, chuckling as he pulled Gaz closer to him. "Even if they somehow managed to locate any of our electronic devices, the house has a scrambler inside it that will ping the signal off to a distant location, throwing off their scanners and leading them somewhere else," Zim said with a self assured smirk.

"Oh, ok," Dib said, feeling relieved that they were out of the thick of the danger now. He wasn't one for getting shot at by mysterious men with deadly motives. He would rather be the one shooting, and he would prefer his target be Zim instead of Gaz and himself.

"Dib, don't you need to go unpack your stuff?" Gaz said, staring at him with a 'get-out-of-the-room-now' look. Dib looked at her quizzically, however quickly got her meaning when she placed her head on Zim's shoulder.

"Oh! Right, thanks Gaz! I completely, uh, forgot to unpack my, uh, stuff," Dib said, deciding that angering Gaz right now was a good way to get shot at again, something he would really rather not go through once more. He quickly made his exit from the living room and, grabbing his bag, headed upstairs to unpack, though he still planned to sneak back downstairs and spy on the two the second he had placed the bag inside his room.

"You have to tell him," Gaz said softly as she played with Zim's gelled hair. The foreign man grunted a bit as he looked down at her, his face showing nothing more then compassion and a slight irritation, though the latter was directed at her comment about Dib.

"If I do that, we'll never have a moment of peace," Zim said, causing Gaz to sigh.

"But he deserves to know, and it's better to tell him now than having him find out by accident later," She told him and Zim nodded in agreement.

"All right...I'll tell him tomorrow," Zim said before leaning down and kissing Gaz softly before she voice an objection to that plan. Luckily for Zim, Gaz was more interested in kissing the ex assassin than fighting with him about keeping secrets from her brother.

Dib, however, was beyond curious as to what he was supposed to find out about tomorrow. If _Gaz_ of all people, who normally kept everything from him, even when it concerned him, wanted him to know a secret that Zim felt would cause the trio to fight for the entire duration of their stay in the cottage, then it must be quite a secret indeed. The question Dib was asking himself was what it was, because he honestly had no idea what it could be.

Deciding that the noises Zim and Gaz were making only indicated they wouldn't be talking about _him_ for the rest of the night, Dib abandoned his post at the top of the stairs and headed over to the computer room. If Zim felt the internet was safe to use, he might as well see what he could learn about Zim's former bosses.

* * *

"This is actually...really good..." Dib said slowly, the words paining him greatly, but the food was far too wonderful to eat without complimenting the chef. Even if it was..._Zim_.

"You sound surprised Dib," Zim said as he placed a fresh plate of eggs on the wooden table in the kitchen before sitting down to join the Membrane siblings for breakfast. The food was beyond superb, golden eggs perfectly scrambled with sprinkled melted cheese took up half the plate with lightly buttered toast on the side and the largest, thickest pancakes, which were covered in a Dib had ever seen taking up the other half of the plate. "Just because I am the 'scum of the earth,' as you prefer to refer to me as, I am not incapable of cooking standard food."

Gaz ignored the two men and continued wolfing down her second helping of eggs. Despite what Zim said, his cooking was anything but standard and she was definitively going to take advantage of that while she could. Zim's food rivaled Bloaty's to her, and that alone spoke in large volumes just how good his cooking skills were.

"I never said you were 'incapable' of cooking food," Dib retorted, but he too was more interested in eating the delicious food set before him rather than fight with Zim over some simple matter. He could always do that after he had finished eating anyways.

"So how long do you think we'll be staying here?" Gaz asked after they had finished eating their breakfast. Zim and Dib were busy collecting the plates and placing them inside the high tech dish washer located under the island in the middle of the kitchen.

"I do not know," Zim said as he looked off into the distance, calculating a few things. "We'll have to contact your father somehow, on a secure line of course, and then we'll have to wait until he can negotiate a deal with Red..." Zim continued as he began to mutter under his breath for a few seconds before nodding to himself. "About a month, give or take," Zim said at last.

"A month!" Dib snapped, outraged. "You want us to stay here for a month?" He demanded.

"No," Zim said as he crossed his arms and leaned back against the kitchen counter. "I want _Gaz_ to stay here for a month, for her safety," Zim said coolly, his choice of words making his frosty opinion of Dib crystal clear. "But since you are of such value to her, I brought you along for the ride," He added and headed for the living room. Gaz gave Dib a pointed look before getting up and following Zim out.

Dib simply sighed and looked out the kitchen window, which showed the thick forest all around them. "It's going to be a _long_ month..." He said softly.

* * *

This would be fun, she decided. Her targets were in a remote location, away from any inconveniences or unexpected encounters. She had free reign to do as much damage as she wanted up here and she planned to do so to the fullest extent.

The fact that they were isolated up there meant she could use the _special_ tech, so she was in an even greater mood. However her orders still stood, so she would have to capture one of them before she could kill the other two. Red had been very specific in his wording to her, he wanted Zim dead, and in as messy a way possible as she could manage, but he had sadly been very...unspecific on who she was to capture and who she was to kill of the Membrane children.

The girl would be the best choice, she was the smallest out of the three, but if Zim was actually emotionally attached to her as he was rumored to be, it would be best to simply snatch the boy up and kill Zim and his witch. That way there would be nothing left of him when the deal was done with Doctor Membrane.

Sighing in frustration, she continued down the long row of weapons, all of them metallic and shiny, some of them were pointy while others were blunt but still deadly in their own special way. Once she had finished with her selection of weapons, she headed over to the next section of her base and began searching for a suitable transport. As she passed the large and complex machines, she took note of each vehicles strengths and weaknesses before finally reaching the end of the line. Looking over the line of machines once more, she came to a conclusion and took her bag full of gear with her towards her selected vessel.

_Lookout Zim_, she thought as she powered up the machine, causing it's arms to unlock and it's legs to hiss before extending so that the main body was placed even higher off the ground then before. _Tak is back for her revenge..._


	4. Chapter IV: Assault

_Victims of Corporate Espionage_

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN INVADER ZIM...yet**'

Chapter IV: Assault

"How long do you think he'll be up there this time?" Gaz asked as she played with her GameSlave with lazy fingers. She was more interested in Zim, who was laying under her on the couch with his hands tangled in her hair. The two had been like this for the past two hours, with Zim occasionally switching channels when the show they were watching got too boring.

"I'm giving him another hour, two at the most," Zim said calmly as he leaned forward to kiss the back of her neck. The three of them had been sitting down in the kitchen for lunch when Dib had suddenly thought of a new way to break into the Tall's mainframes and launched himself upstairs to the computer room.

"Stop, Zim," Gaz said and smirked as Zim pouted. She then proceeded to close her GameSlave and turn around so that she was straddling his lap. "Okay, _now_ continue," She said and watched as a predatorial grin spread across Zim's features before the ex-assassin was pulling her towards him.

Before the pair could begin their make out session however, the upstairs door swung open and Dib burst out, eyes wide as he stared down the stairs at the duo. "Your never going to believe this!" Dib exclaimed, so shocked by whatever he had learned that he was completely oblivious to Zim and Gaz's current positions.

"What?" Gaz asked, incredibly irritated that Dib had butted in, like usual, when things were _finally_ getting interesting. If this was some big foot sighting nearby, she would ring her brother like a wet towel and then shot him a few times for good measure.

Dib opened his mouth to share his discovery with them, however before he could get a word out a long burst of laser fire, not gun fire but plasma heated energy, tore through the upstairs walls. One of the shots hit one of the wooden posts at the top of the stairs and sent wooden fragments all over Dib's face and upper body.

Moving faster then Gaz would have thought, Zim slid out from under her and bolted up the stairs to grab Dib, who was screaming in pain at the top of his lungs. "Get down Gaz!" Zim barked as he reached the top of the stairs, only for a second burst of laser fire to tear through the opposite wall, nearly taking his head off in the process.

"I swear Dib if you get me killed, I will kill _you_," Zim muttered as he grabbed the screaming young man and hauled him over one shoulder. Once Dib was secured, he bounded down the stairs and immediately headed for the basement. "Gaz. Move. Now!" Zim barked just as a third burst of laser fire shot through the downstairs. The laser fire tore up the kitchen and ripped through the television and couch, though it barely missed Gaz, who was laying on the floor. Zim, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. He had seen the laser fire coming and, rather then have Dib wounded even more, moved so that the laser fire hit the back of his left arm instead of Dib's back. Gaz, meanwhile, simply stared in shock at the thick green blood pouring out of Zim's wounded bicep. "MOVE IT!" Zim roared before bounding down the steps into the basement. It took Gaz a few more seconds to snap out of it, but she finally did and ran after Zim. Not a moment after she shut the reinforced door, more laser fire peppered the house.

* * *

Darn it. Darn it all.

She had not expected his hideout to be reinforced, much less reinforced to withstand _her_ weapons. Those laser rounds should have been taking chunks out of the walls, they should have left burning holes and flaming trails. Instead they were nothing more than scorch marks on metal plating. Wonderful, it was all so bloody wonderful!

"Computer!" She snapped in her British accent, a trait she had picked up after her time undercover within the British SAS. "Do a full search on that base and get me a weapons and defense output, stat!" She ordered before clicking an icon on her control panel. The indicator on the panel flashed from a dull pink to a bright blue and immediately the window before her turned from it's normal coloration to a thermal cover.

Seeing no life signs on the top or bottom floors, she deducted that there was a hidden, most likely shielded, basement below the house. Deciding that her vehicle would have to stay behind for now, she unhooked herself from the driver's seat, grabbed a handful of weapons and made sure her headset was securely attached before dropping out of the walker.

"Computer," She said as she approached the burn mark riddled house.

"Yes?" The computerized voice asked.

"Cloak the walker and await my signal," She ordered before firing off a blast from a large blaster. The laser burst hit dead center on the reinforced double doors that led into the house. With a loud bang, the metal slabs collapsed inwards, sending dust and smoke across the living room while the floors buckled slightly from the heavy weight of the doors. "And get me that readout!"

* * *

"What was that?" Dib asked with a dreamy voice while Zim began patching up his various wounds. Luckily none of them were deep or life threatening, but there were still numerous cuts and light puncture wounds and if left untreated, they could very well become life threatening.

"That?" Zim said absentmindedly as he pulled out the last few bits of wood from Dib's face, which was starting to bleed badly. "That was just...uh...you fell down the stairs, yes! Clumsy Dib, you fell down the stairs," Zim said as he winced, the pain in his left arm was growing stronger. Biting down on his tongue, he helped Dib over to the sink that was attached to the first aid station nearby and soaked a towel before placing it on Dib's face to wipe away the pools of blood that were growing there.

"What was that!" Gaz snapped at him as she made her way down the stairs.

"You know pefectly-" Zim paused as he finished cleaning Dib's face and quickly grabbed a thick roll of white gauze off the first aid table and began to wrap it around Dib's head. "-Well what that was!"

"You said _they_ wouldn't come here!" She shouted as she hurried over to help Zim fix up her brother.

"_They_ wouldn't have!" Zim snapped back at her. "I was stupid alright! _ya_ _tsarski zazhmuril_, ok?" Zim paused in his screaming to wince once again and reached for the left over gauze, having finished taping Dib up, and began taping up his own arm.

Gaz's facial features softened, a rare thing indeed, and she reached over to help her struggling boyfriend with his arm. "I thought they were too worried about being discovered to risk attacking us like this..." Gaz said softly.

"I did too, but apparently Red really is worried about me..." Zim muttered. "I have led you into death..." He lamented sadly. Once Gaz had finished taping Zim up, he reached over and pulled her into an affectionate hug. "Take Dib and run," He said gently, but with the authority of a command sown in as well.

"What?" Gaz exploded, but was quieted as Zim kissed her with the same passion that he loved her with. She remained silent and simply enjoyed and returned the kiss before breaking softly at the end.

"Trust me...just go," Zim said and kissed her once more on the forehead. He then winced and stood up before heading over to Dib's barely conscious body. "For all the trouble you've caused me over the years, you weren't so bad, _Malchek_," Zim said in way of parting as he picked up the younger man and carried him over to the small, well hidden, escape pod that was inside a massive fake furnace. Opening the grating and typing in a code, Zim placed Dib inside the pod and then gestured for Gaz to do the same. "Please Gaz..." Zim said as the purple haired girl stared at him defiantly. "You will only get in the way,"He added gently.

Gaz glared at him once last time before stepping into the pod. "If you die, I _will_ throw you into a nightmare world of your darkest imagination..." She said with what sounded like an attempt at terrorizing him, but she was either too worried or too scared to pull it off completely. Zim nodded meekly in acceptance, then the pod sealed shut and it blasted off, away from the house, away from the entire local area in fact. Zim had no idea where Gaz planned on piloting the thing, but he knew they would be safe at least.

Sighing, he made sure the gauze was holding before struggling over to the large, floor to ceiling double reinforced metal safe situated in the far corner of the basement. Typing in another code, the door slid open and Zim slipped inside the safe, which opened up to reveal a large armory with rows of weapons, stacks of ammo and piles of armor and explosives.

Taking what he needed, Zim secured a timer to a large pile of explosives and then headed over to the computer terminal set in the back of the wall of the safe. Typing in a final code, he left the safe and sealed the door behind him. As he exited, he heard a loud explosion go off upstairs followed by the sound of a thick metal door crashing down the stairs as light streamed in from upstairs.

"Hello _Zim_," A high pitched women said with a British accent as her figure descended through the smoke of the explosion. She was covered in weapons and in her hands was one of the biggest blasters Zim had ever seen.

"_Strasvytyeĭ dʹyavola_," Zim said with a bit of weariness as he shouldered his primary blaster.

"Oh, are you _hurt_?" The voice taunted with sickly sweet anger. "Poor little _Zimmy_," The voice continued. "Don't worry, _I'll_ relieve the pain soon enough!"

Zim cracked a smile. "Still your old self, huh Tak?" He said before clicking the trigger on his blaster, hoping beyond all odds that he had caught her off guard, that his shot would be on the mark, that he had pulled the trigger fast enough.

His shot missed.


	5. Chapter V: Face Off

_Victims of Corporate Espionage_

Chapter V: Face Off

"_Der'mo!_" Zim shouted as the bolt shot past Tak's sneering face. With the practiced ease of a trained fighter, Zim rolled smoothly behind a pile of wooden boxes that were situated near the corner of the small room. Ignoring the pain the movement caused his injuries, Zim remained as low to the floor as he could and for good reason. Laser fire peppered the entire back wall of the basement as Tak fired her blaster.

"Come out, come out where ever you are!" Tak howled as she marched down the stairs that led into the basement. "Let's get this over with _Zimmy!_"

"Gladly," Zim whispered as he raised his .357 and fired off two quick rounds in Tak's general direction. He knew the bullets wouldn't hit her, but they weren't meant too. With a shriek, Tak dove away from the direction the bullets had come from while firing her blaster at the same time. The laser bolts sailed across the basement and passed through the boxes, narrowly missing Zim, before hitting the stone wall behind them.

Cautious to not present a target to the trigger happy assassin, Zim moved slowly towards another pile of boxes. Tak, meanwhile, was scanning the room with a special eyepiece. The device was supposed to pick up heat signatures, only the natural heat from the furnace had saturated the room, rendering the device useless. Deciding to fall back to the default way of killing a hidden enemy, Tak fired her blaster randomly, hoping to get lucky.

"How do you think this is going to end Zim?" Tak asked as she looked around the room, taking extra care to peer into the shadows cast by the smoking boxes all around her. "With a blaster bolt or a knife?" She sneered as she unsheathed a wicked piece of metal with a gleaming serrated edge.

"A knife," Zim said into her ear. Tak started, but it was too late, Zim was upon her. The master assassin leapt out of the shadows behind Tak and tacked her to the ground. The Skul bowie knife was almost into her throat when Tak brought her right elbow backwards in one smooth motion. Falling backwards from the blow, Zim scrambled to get up as Tak spun her blaster around towards him.

Zim, despite his injuries, jumped forward and knocked the blaster out of her hands. The next few seconds went by in a blur of punches and kicks as the two assassins fought hand to hand. The only difference was that Zim was wounded and Tak was fresh. That difference was going to decide on who lived at the end of their fight.

"Give it up old man!" Tak cried and delivered a brutal kick to Zim's side. The older assassin grunted, but refused to give in. Instead, he grabbed her leg and brought his elbow down on the knee joint with a precise, but powerful strike. The joint popped and Tak howled in pain and rage. She punched Zim several times in quick succession and tackled him to the floor on adrenaline alone.

Zim swiped at her, but she pinned his weakened frame to the floor and drew a secondary blaster from the back of her hip. Working the charger, she aimed it square at his face.

"Time to die!" She said with a final sneer and ripped back on the trigger of the powerful blaster. Instead of death, however, Zim watched as the wall exploded.

Stones flew everywhere as Zim's escape pod blasted its way through the reinforced metal lining the walls of the safe house. Tak, utterly surprised, was momentarily frozen by the sight. Zim, on the other hand, shot forward and sank his Skul into her side. Howling in rage, Tak swung a gloved fist square into Zim's left eye. The assassins quickly separated and stood staring at each other for less then a second before Gaz's voice could be heard.

"Back off harpy!" Gaz roared over the pod's intercom as the twin blasters attached to its underbelly activated. Tak swore before sprinting in the opposite direction in a desperate attempt to escape. "Bye-bye!" Gaz said in a cheery tone before clicking the gun controls.

Laser fire spat angrily after Tak, who was still running with Zim's blade stuck in her side. The assassins was almost to the stairs when Zim fired. The .357 round sailed after Tak, past the flaming boxes and demolished stones, and hit her square in the back. With a yelp, Tak crashed into the staircase face first and remained motionless.

"That's the last time you send me away," Gaz snapped as she exited the pod and ran forward to help a struggling Zim to his feet.

"Believe me when I say 'ditto'," Zim said wearily as he stared at the now ruined escape pod. "Where's Dib?" He asked.

"He passed out after _you_ shot us out of here," Gaz said with anger in her voice but worry in her eyes. "That was a really stupid thing to do..." She added quietly.

"To send you away?" Zim asked. "I knew you were going to come back and save the day, this was all my master plan to begin with," Zim teased. "I am after all the great-"

"Don't start with...that crap again...Zim..." Tak coughed out as she rolled herself over at the edge of the stairs. "The...great Zim...this..." She said as she glared at him with pure hatred. "The great...Zim...that," She stopped momentarily as she went through a particularly violent coughing fit. Her hand went to her mouth to cover the red spit flying everywhere and it came away bloody. "It gets pretty old," She said, trying to snarl at him but failing. The Skul was still in her side, but the blood was flowing freely from the deep knife wound.

"Can we waste her?" Gaz asked as she drew the pistol Zim had given her, which seemed like ages ago, and worked the action like he had taught her.

"No, we need information," Zim said and walked over to the wounded Tak. "Talk," He said simply as he stared down at her.

"Do you really think I'm going to talk? I'd rather di-" Tak started to say, only for Zim to reach down and twist the Skul brutally from Tak's body, which caused Tak to cry out in pain.

"Talk," Zim said again, this time his voice was ice cold.

"Authorization code, four-four-three-oh-two," Tak said with an evil grin. A green light blinked at the edge of her eyepiece in response to the odd code and Zim felt his eyes widen in shock.

"MOVE!" He shouted at Gaz as he bolted towards the ruined pod. Gaz was, for once, completely lost on what was going on around her. She was privy to some of the greatest secrets in the world, but at the moment, she was just as ignorant as Dib. And he was unconscious.

"You'll never make it!" Tak shouted, her demented laughter echoing across the burning ruins of the destroyed basement as Zim grabbed Dib.

"Neither will you!" Zim snapped back as he exited the basement through the gaping hole by the pod, Gaz hot on his heels.

Tak closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Letting the breath out, she reached into her side pocket and withdrew a long, pink colored needle with a vial attached at the end. Without a moment of hesitation, she yanked it down and stabbed it into her right leg. Immediately the micro-bots began to reconstruct her ruined tissue and replenish her lost blood.

Zim hadn't seen the last of Tak.

/

"Why didn't you shoot her?" Gaz snapped as the two of them, plus Dib, who was on Zim's shoulder, ran down the mountainside. Zim was determined to put as much distance between them and the house as possible for some reason. In Gaz's opinion, they should have shot Tak and taken a car from the garage.

"She'll be dead in a few minutes, _we_ may not be so lucky!" Zim said over his free shoulder while they continued to run down the mountain. The trees were growing thicker as they came closer to the valley at the bottom, but for their purposes, the more cover the better.

"I d-" Gaz started to say, only for a massive explosion to rock the forest as flames and smoke shot up into the air behind them. "What was that!?" Gaz asked, not at all happy about being left out of the loop. Zim generally shared all his plans with her and she did not like being excluded from them, it reminded her too much of her father and brother and their superior, excluding personalities.

"My house," Zim said sadly as he thought about all the explosives he had inside the ten million dollar retreat. The timer he had set earlier must have finally gone off, and with Tak inside. That lessened his problems significantly. But they by far didn't end them.

"You blew it up?" Gaz asked.

Zim turned to answer her, however that was when the mech decided to open fire. The ground exploded from underneath the duo and sent them, along with Dib, sprawling down the mountainside until they hit a level spot. Looking up at the smoking crater a dozen or so feet above them, Zim noticed the metallic gleam of the Megadoomer X-3 Combat Mech.

"Take Dib and hide!" Zim said quietly to Gaz as the machine searched for them with its sensory equipment. He had known that code was familiar, it was the activation code for a Megadoomer on standby!

"You promised to-" Gaz started to protest, however Zim silenced her with a fiery kiss. Pulling back, he held her tightly as he told her once more.

"You need to go once more," Zim said sadly as he drew his .357 with one hand. Kissing her, he stood up and drew his 1911 Colt with his other hand. "I'll be back," He promised her before taking off up the mountainside.

Gaz swore under her breath. Left with little other choice, she picked up Dib and hauled him off towards the a thick cluster of trees and tall grass. Her brother, despite his constant activities with the Swollen Eyeball Network, was gravely out of shape. Gaz, despite her unhealthy diet and almost non-existent participation at the local gym, was in far better shape. But hey, that's life for you.

After making sure that Dib was fully concealed in the bushes, Gaz went back up the mountainside to try and find Zim. It didn't take her long.

Laser fire and explosions were being traded with human made lead as the mech and Zim battled it out in the forest. The drastic landscape angle gave the mech a significant advantage, but Zim was closing on the robot and that advantage would be negated.

Drawing her pistol once again, Gaz took off after Zim. In her head, it made sense; the mech would be preoccupied with Zim, she could easily sneak up on it. Wrong.

The mech noticed her almost instantly and, as if on command, blasted away from Zim and roared forwards toward Gaz. The purple haired girl felt her eyes go wide, but she held her ground until the last possible second. Jumping to the side, she narrowly avoided the cargo net that had been shot at her by the mech. Instead, the robotic killing machine crashed into a large tree, which it went straight through.

"I told you to hide!" Zim shouted at her as he limped over to her. The wounds he had taken from Tak, and the wounds from the mech, coupled with the laser wounds he had received protecting Dib earlier were obviously stacking up on the master assassin.

"I'm fine!" Gaz shouted back as the mech reappeared. It somehow seemed to appear almost angry as it flew at Gaz yet again, this time firing more then one net at her. Gaz, of course, easily avoided the nets because of the thick trees that the mech had been kind enough to knock down.

"Aim for the tubes!" Zim shouted to her from his own hiding place. Gaz looked closer at the mech and saw that there were thin purple tubes running up and down the robot. Guessing that they powered the hydraulics or something, Gaz fired her pistol with practiced ease. It was nowhere near Zim's perfect form, but her marksmanship was good enough to nail a few tubes. Zim expertly shot the remainder.

The mech, realizing what was happening, tried to ignite its thrusters and escape, but Zim and Gaz had done their work too well. The hydraulics failed and the mech crashed to the ground, immobilized.

"Now lets see what's going on in there," Zim said as he walked towards the mech with a slight, but steady, limp.

"No, you need to get some help," Gaz said as she walked towards Zim, determined to get him to a doctor, or at least another safe house where she could patch him up.

"Gaz," Zim said calmly. "_You_ are not in charge here, _I_ am," Zim said. "Now, let me do what I need to do and we will go."

"Fine," Gaz said with a huff of air that sent a bit of her purple hair out of her face as she sat on the ground.

At peace now, Zim forced his rapidly failing body towards the mech. Once he was sure it was immobilized, Zim opened up the pilots hatch. Letting out a sigh of relief, Zim found the cockpit empty and judging by Tak's logs, it hadn't been used by the British assassin anytime recently. She was dead then.

"Com line to the Tallest," Zim said in Irken, causing Gaz to stare at him with a curious expression. Gaz knew all about Zim's heritage and the secrets that came along with it. She knew what Irken was and could even read, write, and speak some of it. However, she had no idea why Zim would be speaking it to the mech. Her answer came in the form of two well dressed men appearing over the mech in the forms of holograms.

"ZIM!" They shouted in mutual shock. His bloodied appearance did bring a bit of joy to their terrified souls, but the fact that he wasn't dead froze whatever warmth it might have brought by tenfold.

"Z_drastvooytyeh durakovi_," Zim said in Russian. He knew the wording would only frighten them more. They, of all people, were fully aware that the only time Zim ever spoke formally was when he was on a job.

"W-why...why are you all..." Purple tried to ask, but kept getting choked up with fear. And honestly, how could _anyone_ stand up straight while they were bleeding _that_ badly.

"Tak's dead," Zim said softly, switching back to Irken. "She tried to kill me..."

"It wasn't us!" Red denied with such venomous indignation and denial, Zim almost believed him, however the fear was still there. "We stayed away just like you asked!" Red assured him.

"It's funny," Zim said as he stared at them. "How you can work for someone so long that you can actually tell when their lying based on previous experience," He said coldly. "You little _Der'moi_!" Zim snarled. "You tried to kill me! You tried to kill Gaz!" He shouted at them. "You should have listened to me when I told you to stay away! Now your going to die like the dumb rats you always were!" Zim snapped before firing his .357 into the holographic projector, breaking the communication.

"Computer," Zim said out loud.

"I am sorry, I do not recogniz-" The computer within the mech started to say, however, Zim cut it off.

"Override code two-two-nine," Zim said and the computer's purple and pink color blinked twice before appearing a light blue. "Activate fail-safe," Zim ordered before walking away with Gaz. The computer's work was done in seconds and the mech detonated into a ball of fire so hot that several trees simply melted. Fires quickly began spreading to the less fortunate trees and a forest fire would be raging within the hour. Neither the master assassin or his love had the energy to care.

/

"You bloody fool!" Redford Tall shouted as he smacked his brother viciously. "I told you we should have left him be!" He raged.

"You were the one that was all 'KILL HIM!' not me!" Paul shouted back.

"Ohhh don't you pin this on me!" Redford shouted, his voice rising. "You're the one who fired him!"

"You fired him!" Paul cried out in indignation as he pointed a finger at his younger brother.

"You agreed with me!" Red snapped.

"_Everyone_ agrees with you! IF we don't, you _shoot_ us!" Paul roared and stormed away from his brother and picked up a bottle of bourbon. Paul finished the mostly drained bottle with two steady gulps and quickly went in search of another. Redford, meanwhile, collapsed into a thickly cushioned leather chair with his head in his hands.

"We _need_ to kill that man..." Red said with exasperation as Paul returned with a box loaded down with bottles of all shapes and sizes. Setting the crate on the coffee table, Paul took out several bottles and a pair of crystal cups.

"True, but how?" Paul asked as he popped a few of the tops on the bottles and began to mix them together in the cups.

"Tak was our best shot..." Redford said sadly as Paul handed him a concoction of expensive poison.

"And she's dead," Paul finished for him as he drained his own cup. Shrugging, he grabbed a bottle of Single Malt and took a healthy pull at it before setting it down. "Needs more water," Paul said after making a face. He got up and rummaged around in the box until he found a glass bottle of IRKIN, the company's branded water product.

Redford stared into his glass for what seemed like ages before finally speaking up. "Call in everyone," He said at last, his words causing Paul to choke bitterly on his dirnk.

"W-what?" Paul asked in shock.

"Everyone...call in everyone," Redford said softly before draining his glass. He stood up rummaged around in the crate for a minute before turning to Paul. Redford clapped his brother's shoulder like a politician did to the concerned citizen during a trying time. "It will be alright Paul," He said and headed towards his bedroom, a bottle of champagne in hand.

Paul, a bit disturbed by the slight madness he had seen in Red's eyes, reached over and picked up the telephone laying on the coffee table. "Yes, this is Mr. Tall," Paul said as he reached into his suit and pulled out a faded and well worn notebook. Flipping it open, he allowed his eyes to pass over all of the names, some of which were crossed out in red or black ink, for just a moment before speaking. "Please get me Commander Sizz-lorr," Paul asked.

/

**SNEAK PEAK FOR CHP VI: Rampage**

"I Swear Zim, I don't know nothin!"

"If I believed that, I might have taken someone else," Zim said calmly as he stared at his prisoner.

"They just wanted more guys for security! They wasn't gonna go after you!"

"See that's the problem," Zim said as he placed the Hank on the prisoner's leg. "_They_ never do _anything_, that's why they got _you_," He said as he took a glass ball out of his pocket and showed the bright red Christmas ornament to his prisoner.

"That the best you got?"

"You have no idea," Zim said as he brought the Hank downwards violently until the blade sank hungrily into the prisoner's thigh. Howling in pain, Zim's prisoner was taken by surprise when the medium sized ball was forced into his mouth.

"Try not to swallow," Zim sneered as he quickly placed the patch of duct-tape over the prisoner's mouth. Judging by his muffled speech, Zim decided the man was confused as to why he had a glass ball in his mouth. Being an upstanding citizen, Zim felt it was his civic duty to educate the man on its purpose.

"There are three kinds of people in this world that matter to me," Zim said as he reached down into the bag that was beside the prisoner's chair.

"There is Gaz," He said calmly as he found what he was looking for in the bag. "There are those that she loves," He continued as he brought the object he had found out of the bag for his prisoner's inspection. "And there those that need to die," Zim finished.

"Obviously you know where you stand," Zim said as the prisoner began to beg from behind the duct-tape. Zim was almost sure the man was actually trying to swallow the glass ball. With an expert swing that possessed both power and precision, Zim slammed the metal baseball bat into the side of the prisoner's jaw. With another swipe, he smashed the lower side of the man's jaw. A final, crushing swing was delivered to the other side of the prisoner's face.

With a grim smile, Zim yanked the duct-tape off and watched as his prisoner spat out broken teeth, glass shards, and giant globs of blood and flesh. The man whimpered for a long time before Zim finally spoke.

"_Where is she!_"


	6. Important Update!

IMPORTANT UPDATE

If you are thoroughly enjoying this fic and want to support me in writing it, please go to my blog at and check it out!

This is also where I will be posting Updates on my stories, sneak peaks to future projects, chapters, and characters. I also encourage my fan base to commute there, I want you guys to get the quickest updates and that is now Blogspot for me. I am also transferring the polls there too, so check that out! Make it fun and comment and subscribe!

_Lostsword_


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